The National Association of REALTORS® just made a move that, frankly, they should have made a long time ago. By removing the requirement that MLSs only serve REALTORS®, NAR is no longer forcing agents into association membership just to get access to the MLS (though it was an “optional rule”, many MLS’s, if not most, throughout the country have adopted it). That might sound like a subtle policy tweak, but it could end up reshaping the entire structure of organized real estate.
For many MLSs, this change simply brings national policy in line with what they were already doing. CRMLS, Bright MLS, HAR, and several others have allowed non-REALTORS® to subscribe for years. Now others like SmartMLS in Connecticut and Doorify in North Carolina are following suit.
